by Doctor Who
‘I see what you mean about the poetry. It’s a bit over the top, isn’t it?’ Kendle said.
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To his surprise, however, the Doctor didn’t agree.
Instead, he
slammed shut the journal and pulled his glasses from his face. ‘Yes!’
he announced, eyes wide with delight. ‘That’s it!’
‘What is?’ demanded Kendle, confused.
The Doctor started talking very fast and Kendle had to strain to keep up.
‘It’s not a metaphor at all. He’s being factual, you know, not poetic.
The planet’s got a perfectly balanced ecosystem, right? So what happens if you add a new element to something that’s perfectly balanced?
You send it out of kilter. And what are we here? Alien. We’re the new element. We’re making the planet ill and the Witiku are the planet’s response. It’s as if the planet itself is allergic to us!’ He stopped and looked serious. ‘We have to sort this out – fast – before the entire planet suffers a fatal anaphylactic shock. And that is a metaphor,’ he added, ‘for the end of the world!’
Rose ran through the options. To her right – monsters. To her left –monsters. In front of her – monsters. Just another day at the office, then. No possibilities up or down, so the only way to go was backwards, but that was just a solid wall. No convenient entrance there.
Bad planning.
Beside her Petra Shulough was shaking with fear. She grabbed the older woman’s hand and gave it a squeeze. With her other hand, she felt the uneven surface of the wall at their backs. It was rough and uneven; the individual stones were not all the same size and some jutted out slightly. Maybe up was an option after all. There was a window set in the wall about three metres from the ground – could she reach it? It was certainly worth a try.
‘Quick! Help me up,’ she hissed at Petra.
Petra put her hands together and Rose placed her foot into them, then pushed off. She scrabbled for a handhold with her left hand –and found one. Moving quickly but carefully, she found a secure place for her left foot and then her right. She was clinging to the wall, Spider-Man fashion, but without the dodgy skin-tight costume. Not 133
far to go now. She stretched up with her right arm and felt for the window ledge. Got it.
With a huge and unladylike grunt Rose hauled herself up and over the ledge, into the room on the other side. From there she was able to reach down to help the professor, who was already starting her own ascent. And with good reason – the nearest Witiku was only a few metres away.
Rose clasped the professor’s arms and pulled with all her strength.
The older woman was quite light, thankfully, and a moment or two later she was through the window. Below, an enraged Witiku had arrived at the base of the wall and was trying to slice at them. Its talons raked the stone just below the ledge, causing sparks to fly. The two women exchanged looks and smiled, then Rose led the way deeper into the building.
‘Thank you,’ gasped the professor as they went. ‘That’s twice you’ve saved my life.’
‘There are worse habits,’ joked Rose as they reached a stone spiral staircase.
They could hear the roars of the creatures all around them, but it was impossible to work out how close they were.
‘Up or down?’ Rose wondered aloud, trying to work out the lie of the land.
She knew this was the main temple building that she had partly explored earlier. Up would take them to side galleries and then on to the observation tower that the Doctor had climbed. From there they would be able to see their attackers coming but they would also be trapped. Down would lead to the crypt. Although the cellars and tunnels there were dark and dangerous, they had the advantage of being extensive. With luck they would be able to lose their pursuers that way. Rose had made up her mind.
‘Down?’ queried the professor, following her.
‘You wanted to see the crystals, didn’t you?’ Rose smiled encouragingly, and led the way down the spiral staircase.
∗ ∗ ∗
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Kendle regarded his troops with a critical eye. Not the finest body of soldiers that he had ever commanded but they would have to do.
Hespell, the red-headed trainee pilot, looked paler than ever, and his female colleague, Baker, didn’t look much better. The pair of them had graduated from the Space Naval Academy just before he had taken them on and, from the records he had seen, neither of them had excelled at the combat-training element of their course. The third member of his assault squad was the human turned native – Rez. He seemed calmer than the other two, even though they were at least eight years older than him. Perhaps it was the advantage of knowing the territory.
The final member of the team was the Doctor and Kendle just didn’t know where to begin with this one. He didn’t look like a fighter – tall and thin, you could imagine him snapping in two like a twig in the hands of a Witiku. Yet there was an inner strength to him, a steel core, well hidden but definitely there, that even Kendle found intimidating.
The belts they each wore, from which numerous plastic bags hung, did not improve the impression of a makeshift army about to face the enemy with no weapons. Each bag was filled with the solution the Doctor had designed, and the sophisticated, high-tech delivery system for this bio-weapon was to be the human arm. In short, they were going to lob the bags at the creatures, like kids in a summer garden hurling water balloons at each other. Kendle grimaced and was glad none of the professional soldiers he had led into countless battles could see him now. In addition to the jinnera ‘bombs’, each of them carried a makeshift water pistol, a hose connected to a pump-action container of liquid.
Kendle sighed to himself. ‘All right, let’s move out. Rez, you know the territory, you take point.’
The young human looked confused at the order.
‘Lead the way,’ the Doctor explained kindly.
Rez nodded and set off. Hespell and Baker fell in behind him. The Doctor hesitated but Kendle waved him on, taking up the final position in the formation.
Outside the spaceship, the forest was now dark. Dark but not silent.
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Animal noises filled the air, together with the calls and hoots of noc-turnal birds. As they followed the teenager into the darkness, Hespell and Baker looked around nervously. Without a word, Hespell found himself reaching out and taking his colleague’s hand. She returned the quick squeeze and they continued forward together, still holding hands.
Behind them both the Doctor and Kendle saw this unorthodox military manoeuvre. Kendle sighed, audibly this time. The Doctor just smiled. How human, he thought. And then the smile faded as he remembered Rose. He was sure she’d be OK. In all their adventures she had proved herself a worthy companion time and time again; never-theless, he admitted to himself, he would feel a lot happier when they were reunited once more.
Rose reckoned they had Brother Hugan to thank for the illumination.
It was because of his devotion to the old ways that the temple building was still in use – if only largely for storage – and that meant a number of torches had been left at various strategic points, together with flint and fuel. Rose had found one, fixed into a metal holder, as they had reached the bottom of the spiral staircase. She had carefully removed it and now it was at least giving them a fighting chance of seeing what they were doing. Not that Rose actually knew where any of the passages led, but at least they could see the uneven floor at their feet.
They had been walking in silence for some time now, going ever deeper into the labyrinth of storerooms and connecting corridors.
They’d seen stores of dried fruit, cloth and jinnen powder and more rooms like the one Rose had seen before, full of crystals, but the professor’s curiosity had been muted. Right now she was more interested in survival than in the state of her ship’s engines.
‘Do you think we’re safe yet?’ she asked, in a voice devoid of her usual arrogance and authority.
Rose was amused at the way she had somehow become the leader of their little expedition. She considered her answer for a moment.
The sound of the creatures’ cries had faded, but that could just mean that they were no longer roaring, not that they were far away.
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‘I don’t know,’ she answered eventually, ‘but I think we should keep moving.’
They had reached an archway into another large chamber. Rose raised the torch above her head, to cast the light as widely as possible.
There was a shape over to her left, massive and inhuman. Rose gasped and was about to run when she realised there were more of them.
Five or six in total, all around the edge of the room – Witiku. Had they walked into a trap?
Then, with relief, Rose saw that these Witiku were statues – huge stone replicas of the creatures that were chasing them. In the centre of the room was a vast slab of stone – like the sacrificial altar in the main temple above but on a much larger scale. Rose swallowed. This altar stone was stained too, with a deep black mark. Whatever had been sacrificed here was a lot larger than a bird or a hog.
Rose glanced at the professor, who was regarding the stone with academic interest. She caught Rose’s eye and Rose could see that they had both reached the same conclusion about the function of this altar. This chamber was a real killing pit – a place where the ancient Laylorans had practised human sacrifice. The two women looked at each other and nodded – they were not going to stay here a moment longer than necessary.
At the far end of the chamber there was another archway to yet another corridor. They hurried towards it, but as they moved away, carrying the only light, something stirred behind one of the Witiku statues. Cold, hard eyes watched the flame disappear into the darkness.
Then something began to follow, moving with panther-like stealth.
The Doctor had joined Rez at the head of their group. He was glad of his large coat but the human boy seemed immune to the cold night.
Hardened to the local conditions, the Doctor supposed. Rez had obviously adapted to the planet’s climate. But had the planet adapted to having him here?
It appeared that he had been harbouring similar thoughts. ‘You think the Witiku have risen because the spaceship crashed here?’ he asked the Doctor.
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‘I think the mass production of Witiku is a response to the professor’s ship, yes. . . ’ the Doctor began, but it was clear to the boy that this wasn’t a full answer.
‘But the first Witiku appeared before the ship came down?’ continued Rez.
‘Yes,’ nodded the Doctor solemnly.
‘So they were a reaction to a different problem. Like all the other things. The crop failures. The strange weather. The earth tremors.’
The Doctor was fascinated. ‘And these things are unusual for Laylora?’
‘Very. The elders told me that nothing like this has happened before.
But it’s been getting worse year by year now. And no one understands why.’
‘But you think you do, don’t you?’ He let the question hang in the air for a moment. ‘How long has this been going on?’ he asked, fearing that he already knew what the reply would be.
‘Fifteen years,’ Rez told him sadly. ‘Since they found me,’ he added in a small voice.
They walked on in silence.
A few minutes later Kendle’s unit reached the outlying ruins. Here, where the tree cover was less dense, Laylora’s twin moons bathed the area in an eerie bluish light, making the landscape look stranger than ever before. It was very cold now too, and their breath misted in front of their faces. The five of them stood together for a moment, regarding the mysterious scene before them.
‘Now where?’ asked Kendle.
The Doctor shrugged. ‘Not sure. Why don’t we head for the main temple? I bet that’s where we’ll find the monsters,’ he suggested. ‘To be honest, I was rather expecting to have been attacked by now!’
Rose stopped suddenly and the professor cannoned into her.
‘Witiku,’ whispered Rose, turning around on the spot. ‘We need to go back the way we came.’
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The professor turned and took the lead, but she had only gone a short distance when she too came to an abrupt stop. Something was moving in the darkness. Rose still had the torch, so she couldn’t see very well, but something was definitely up ahead.
‘There’s something in front of us too,’ she whispered to Rose. ‘Now what?’
Rose looked around quickly. There was a chamber entrance a metre or so away, but it was likely to have only the one entrance – if they sheltered in there they would be trapped. A roar from behind made the decision for her and she pulled the older woman into the chamber.
They’d just have to hope the Doctor was on his way.
The attack party had already suffered a few setbacks. The terrain was treacherous and they had all stumbled and slipped as they hurried towards the temple building. Unfortunately, their falls had come at a price. Both Hespell and Baker had lost some of their jinnera bombs.
Indeed, Hespell had a soaking-wet leg where a brace of bags had burst prematurely. Nevertheless, they had reached the temple without any serious injury and with most of their precious cargo intact.
The Doctor led the way into the dark interior. Moving quickly, they found a couple of torches. The Doctor took one, giving the other to Baker, and he then led the way down the stone steps into the crypt.
They could hear Witiku activity up ahead. Each of them now had one of the jinnera bombs to hand, ready to throw.
‘Aim at the body,’ instructed the Doctor. ‘The bags will break on impact and we should get maximum coverage that way.’
‘And you’re sure that will cure them?’ Hespell gave voice to the question they all wanted to ask.
‘Well, nothing in life’s ever certain,’ the Doctor replied. ‘Except death and taxes – and neither of them has ever troubled me!’
They had now reached a passageway and were moving towards sounds of activity. Witiku roaring – loud and angry – floated back to them.
‘Stand by,’ muttered the Doctor. ‘Sounds like we’ve found them.’
He scouted on ahead, poking his head round the edge of an arched 139
doorway. His eyes quickly adjusted to the light and he was able to see what was happening. Six or seven Witiku were in front of him, facing into a room containing a huge pile of yellow crystals. And on the top of the pile perched Rose and the professor.
Rose was hurling crystals at the creatures to keep them at bay. The Doctor stepped back into the corridor and signalled for the others to join him.
‘Half a dozen of them,’ he reported, ‘just inside the door. Are you ready?’
Kendle and Rez nodded immediately; Hespell and Baker gave each other a reassuring look first.
‘Right, then – let’s do it,’ said the Doctor.
The five of them quickly lined up across the doorway.
‘Oi, you lot – over here!’ cried the Doctor, and the Witiku spun round to face him. ‘Now!’ he ordered, hurling his first jinnera bomb at the nearest creature.
The others did the same. Five bags of the solution sailed through the air and all hit their targets. As promised, the bags broke on impact, spraying their victims with the liquid. Each of the Witiku screamed as if on fire.
‘Quickly! Another one!’ shouted the Doctor.
A second volley flew through the air and again the Witiku screamed as the liquid burned their hairy skins, but still they kept moving forward. There was no sign of any transformation. The only result was that now the Witiku were wet and angry and heading directly for the rescue party, talons raised, ready to strike.
Something had gone very wrong.
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Ironically it was Rose and the professor who came to the Doctor’s rescue. A new hail of trisilicate rained down on the maddened creatures, causing them to turn their attention again to their initial targets.
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In the confusion, Rez pulled Hespell and Baker back into the corridor.
The Doctor and Kendle, however, both had concerns for the women on top of the crystal mountain. Kendle dived to the left and the Doctor went to the right, but both had the same thought in mind. They ran, fast and low, around the line of creatures and scrambled up each side of the pile of trisilicate. At the top, the professor and Rose kept up their attack, distracting the creatures by lobbing the heaviest crystals at them, preventing them from getting to either the Doctor or Kendle.
Climbing the pile wasn’t easy. The stones kept shifting beneath their feet and offered precious little in the way of secure handholds either.
The Doctor was reminded of trying to run on the shingle beach at Brighton. Keeping his flaming torch held high further complicated the climb. Nevertheless, with the roars of the angry Witiku urging them on, the Doctor and Kendle reached the summit, where they joined Rose and the professor in their rock-throwing assault.
‘Nice to see ya,’ said a smiling Rose.
‘You too.’ The Doctor grinned back at her.
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‘So, you got anything else apart from water bombs? Maybe a cata-pult or something? Or are you going to try flicking ink at them?’ Rose asked, with more than a hint of sarcasm.
‘That was jinnera in a solution. It was meant to reverse the transformation,’ explained the Doctor.
‘Didn’t work,’ said Rose flatly.
‘Yeah, I noticed that.’
The Witiku were still trying to reach them, so Rose picked up a fresh handful of crystals and continued to lob them at the creatures. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the Doctor starting to fiddle with the nozzle of a container slung around his neck, pulling out the short hose attached to a spray control.
‘Maybe we just need a bigger dose,’ he speculated, and let loose with a shower of the solution.